


Outdoor Adventures

by Cyriae



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Greed Refuses To Admit He Can Experience Emotions, Ling Plays Psychologist To The 200 Year Old Sin Hijacking His Body (Again), Minor Swearing, Team Greed, Team Greed Goes Camping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-07-13 11:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16016876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyriae/pseuds/Cyriae
Summary: My take on what might have happened between the time Ed joins up with Greedling and when we next see them at the Rockbells'. Arakawa left plenty of room for imagination in that interlude, aka Free Real Estate, so I wanted to take a crack at what shenanigans might have happened. I also wanted to explore how Greed and Ling's dynamic dramatically changes during this time skip. Please enjoy!





	1. A Berry Good Start

**Author's Note:**

> Where the manga and Brotherhood have inconsistencies, e.g. the events in Devil's Nest, I have based this more closely on the manga cannon.

“Why do I need to wash?” Ed’s indignant voice rang out through the small creek-side clearing. “It’s not like we’re going to _see_ anyone else, and I’ll just get dirty again anyway!” The two men in front of him slowly moved forward, blocking his escape routes as he was forced backwards towards the running water. “You guys aren’t the boss of me!”

The blond man gave a disgruntled sniff in response. “When _you_ have the heightened sense of smell, _Then_ you can decide how often you need to bathe,” Heinkel retorted, his and Darius’s expressions uncompromising and devoid of mercy. “Now take a swim, or we’ll throw you in clothes and all,” Darius added. “Damn teenage boys,” Heinkel muttered.

“Ugh Fiiiiine,” Ed huffed, “If it gets you guys to stop acting like you’re my father. Actually,” he reconsidered, “I would love if you would start acting like my real father, and Never speak to me at all.” He turned to a figure with improbable bangs and a black ponytail watching with vague amusement from off to the side and jabbed a finger towards their dusty face. “Hey wait, how come you’re not hounding Greeling over there to bathe too?”

 “He’s a lost cause, his scent is going to set off our animal instincts no matter how much he washes,” Darius answered, making shoo-ing motions towards the water.

“Aw come on! Hey look, how long has it been since you washed your clothing, Greed? It’s all crusty around your sleeve-“

“DON’T TOUCH ME” Greed yanked his arm from Ed’s reach, face spasming in something like… agony. Ed held his hands up in surrender. “Hey woah whatever you want, just asking-“

“Well butt out, brat, _I’m_ in charge, _I_ decide what happens to my things,” Greed growled, veins in sharp relief on his forehead. Glowering, he turned to stomp off into the trees, fists clenched at his sides, breathing labored. After leaving the range of easy hearing, he suddenly slammed his fist into an adjacent tree, embedding his shielded hand deep into the bark.

**_Damn it_** _…_ He wrenched his hand free and sank against the tree, struggling to get his breathing under control for several minutes, steadfastly avoiding looking at his right sleeve, which indeed had some dark rust grime caked on. _Is this going to become a habit?_ Greed jerked slightly as Ling’s voice intruded on his turmoil. _You won’t be able to storm off every time someone looks at your arm too closely, if you’re not going to Tell them about it you should at least wash-_ **_I don’t need your advice, human._** Greed bared his teeth and, mentally turning away from the cross-legged prince, strode back to where his (newly squeaky clean) subordinates were getting into an argument on whether red was the new black.

Ed looked up curiously at his return, but made no comment. Apparently, this guy really loved his coat, Ed could relate to that.

After a space, Darius spoke up. “So, thanks to Gluttony here, we don’t have any more food. How are we planning on fixing that? We can’t exactly go into town this close to central, being wanted fugitives and all.”

Greed snapped around. “Oy, my name’s _Greed_ , get it right-“ Darius cut off the homunculus’s angry retort. “Not you, the other guy.” Greed blinked, then resumed his aloof pose on the edge of the group with a “Tch.”

Ed sported an expression of superiority. “It’s a good thing you guys have me, I survived on a deserted island when I was nine with only what my brother and I could hunt and scavenge, so you could say I know a few things about surviving in the wild.” He leaned forward and regarded the rest of the group smugly. “So just do as I say, and we’ll have enough food in no time!”

The chimeras looked deeply skeptical. “Did you go that entire month without bathing too?” Heinkel asked.

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear any more judgment from you, Lion Guy!” Ed jabbed a finger angrily at him.

“It’s Heinkel, get it right kid!”

“Hmmmm, we might have a problem.” Greed’s voice cut smoothly through the bickering. He sauntered over to stand in front of Ed, haughty attitude solidly back in place. “I give the orders here, remember?” He leaned down until his face was uncomfortably close to Ed’s. “Or did you already forget, _you_ are  _my_ subordinate now?”

_Oh right, because you know so much about Amestrian wildlife, oh all-knowing one?_ Greed ignored Ling’s needling, but unfortunately it looked like the short alchemist had a similar thought. “Well Greed, let’s hear _your_ plan for getting more food, I’m all ears!” Ed didn’t flinch from the pointed teeth in his face, continuing slyly, “Hey why don’t you let the princeling take the wheel for a bit, he might actually be useful for hunting, being able to sense animals and all that jazz.”

Greed grinned. “Oh, that’s not ever happening again, this body is still very much _mine,_ now and forever. Now,” he straightened and looked down on Ed with an expression that easily outmatched the other boy’s in superiority, “I _order_ you to find us food.”

_Oh very smooth, you just can’t resist a pissing contest, can you?_

Ed looked briefly mutinous before sighing angrily. “Right, _boss_ , whatever you say, I would have never done that on my own.” If he wasn’t so hungry himself, he would’ve refused on principle (spite). “Lion! Gorilla! I’ll show you how to make snares, and then there’s a bush with edible berries we can collect I noticed just up the stream.” Ignoring the chimera’s indignant protests about his nickname use, he continued pointedly, “Or if _Someone_ wanted to make themselves _useful,_ they could start gathering now!”

Greed chuckled as the dysfunctional group moved off in search of flexible saplings. It did feel good to have subordinates again, made it easier not to think about the hole in his psyche, and other… things…

_So, what are you waiting for, let’s go pick some berries!_ Greed rolled his eyes. **_No, brat, that’s what I have underlings for. And for the last time, there’s no “let’s” anything, it’s only me and mine-_** _Berries! Berries! Berries!_ Greed grimaced in annoyance. **_Shut it, I’m not picking anything, you don’t get a say in-_** _BERRIES BERRIES BERRIES BERRIES- **OK FINE GOD JUST SHUT UP.**_ Ling smirked in satisfaction as he stopped pounding his fists against the “floor” in his shared mindscape; he’d been letting his sinful parasite off easy as of late, but the rush from finally having some time in control of his own body was wearing off. So, he instead reverted to his favorite method of entertainment: being annoying as hell. Also, he really wanted berries.

~~~~

“I got to hand it to you, Fullmetal, you actually do have some practical skills.” Heinkel held the fruits of one of the snares, the small team having reconvened after an afternoon of foraging.

“Hey, what do you mean ‘actually?’ You do know I’m the youngest state alchemist since Ever, right?” Ed looked up resentfully from where he was arranging kindling.

Darius looked over from where he was gathering flammable materials from the clearing. “We sort of got the impression from Kimblee that all alchemists are mostly useless outside of their alchemy.”

Ed looked puzzled. “Huh? Whaddya mean?”

The two chimeras shared a look. “Kimblee doesn’t know how to tie a tie,” Heinkel responded, getting his knife ready to skin the rabbit. “He always made one of us chimeras do it for him.”

“He’d stare at you the whole time with that creepy slit-eyed smirk of his,” Darius added, scowling, as he dumped a pile of sticks next to Ed. “Worst part of being in his detail.”

Ed smiled patronizingly. “Oh come on, worse than being ordered to attack innocent alchemist prodigies?”

“Yes.” The two answered in unison.

“Wow hey rude!” Ed huffed. After a few seconds his face brightened, and he snickered at some private joke. “Well of _course_ Kimblee is an idiot, he eats rocks!” He continued laughing to himself as his companions looked at him blankly, but he didn’t elaborate. Darius, however, inexplicably got the urge to repeatedly wash his hands.

“So,” Heinkel said, changing the subject, “Are you planning on sharing those?” He turned to face Greed, who was lounging next to a pile of berries in excess of two feet tall.

The homunculus chuckled. “I’m _Greed,_ remember, sharing isn’t really my deal.”

Ed rolled his eyes. “I guess I need to be more specific when I give directions, did you pick the whole bush or something?”

Greed rolled a blueberry between his fingers. “And what if I did? I take what I want, and I want everythi-“

“Yes YES you want EVERYTHING good god we know! You say that every five minutes! Yeesh if I’d have known how annoying you were going to be, I’d have just taken my chances storming central alone and be done with it!” Ed’s rant gained volume until he was punching his right fist into his log bench with every word.

Greed raised an eyebrow, looking unconcerned. “You seem like you’re hungry, kid. Here.” He slid a leaf with a handful of berries in Ed’s direction, with an air of extreme benevolence. “Can’t have you all getting scurvy now, can we?”

Ed narrowed his eyes. Even this paltry show of charity seemed very out of character, coming from the guy who’d threatened to dissect his brother when he didn’t get his way. Was it a trick? And what was this scurvy nonsense, why did he care…? The revelation hit Ed like an Armstrong punch: Greed thought he _owned_ them now. He saw them as _possessions._ And he wanted to keep them in _good condition._

“Hey kid, what’s with that expression, it’s just berries. Here’s some for you two, Heinkel, Darius.” Greed magnanimously held out small leaf-plates towards the chimeras preparing to cook the newly skinned rabbit.

“How generous,” Darius said sarcastically. “You can leave ‘em over there, we’ll get ‘em later,” Heinkel said absently, trying to figure out the best way to skewer the rabbit carcass.

Greed looked faintly confused, as if this wasn’t the response he’d been expecting. “Oh come now, no thank you?” He smirked crookedly.

Ed reached over and swiped his leaf, shoving the berries into his face. “Mmghph, you expect us to be grateful for literal scraps? We’re not your lackeys at Devil’s Nest, Greed.” The hanger was strong with this one.

Greed’s expression abruptly darkened, spasming painfully as he clenched his fists. After a few seconds he replied, “I can see that, _brat.”_ He deliberately turned away from the group to stare off into the approaching sunset. _…They aren’t, you know. People are different, different circumstances, you can’t expect people to react the same. Just because people act differently doesn’t mean they’re worth less- **Shut it, I don’t need your philosophizing.**_

Ed eyed the small mountain of fruit, preparing to swipe some more handfuls when Heinkel called over to him. “Hey camping expert, how’s the fire coming?”

Ed’s eyes widened as he remembered what he’d been doing before he got distracted. “It’s going fine, get off my back!” He crouched down next to the makeshift firepit and checked where he’d been attempting to light some wood shavings with friction. Oh good, some embers had already built up.

Darius piped up, “Because, you know, we can’t have the fire too late or the light will give away our position, we need to cook this before the sun-“

“OK OK I KNOW IT’S COMING” Ed channeled his irritation into rolling the firestarter stake between his hands as fast as he could, igniting the shavings in a matter of seconds. “There, see? Who’s useless now!”

“Hmm I don’t know,” Darius eyed the small lick of flame Ed was carefully feeding twigs into. “I feel like the Flame Colonel could have done that faster-“

~~~~

The (second) fire was starting to smolder down with the sun as the small group finished their dinner of rabbit and blueberries, Greed finally convinced into sharing by the astute observation that his hoard would rot before they would finish it at the current rate. _See, now you look like the good guy, and they’ll think it’s your idea! **Because they know you’re the last person to share food, brat. Now stop trying to steal control of my limbs so I can eat in peace.** Hee hee, they’d be right! And those were my limbs first! I want to eat too! **Yeah well that’s too bad.**_

On the next log over, Ed, the front of his clothing still somewhat dusty, as if he’d been restrained into the dirt after attempting an attack on someone, was animatedly describing every shortcoming of one Roy Mustang he could think of. “-never does any of his actual work, he just struts around pretending he’s important!” He waved a leg bone for emphasis. “And he’s even bad at that, I totally saw him trip trying to look cool coming down some stairs, and he didn’t even manage to break his stupid neck.” He took a disgruntled bite of rabbit. “Awfully inconsiderate of him if you ask me. Oh yeah, the bastard also blackmails children, can you believe it?”

“Huh, I guess that explains it,” Heinkel said.

“Explains what? That Mustang is a little b-“

“No,” Heinkel cut Ed off, “it explains why you don’t like him.” Darius threw a rabbit bone into the fire, chiming in, “Yeah it just sounded like you were jealous or something before.”

Ed sputtered in reply, “Hey Excuse you, I am definitely not jealous of that idiot-”

 “Did he blackmail you about your brother?” Greed’s curious voice broke over Ed’s angry ranting. He was back to watching the proceedings of his underlings with detached interest after his bout of sunset-watching.

Ed’s head whipped around. “Hey, butt out, that’s none of your business! And don’t think I’ve forgiven you for what _you_ threatened to do to Al, you greasy bastard.”

_Hey, my hair isn’t greasy-!_ “Oh yeah, sorry about that, that was strictly business kid, you were just standing between me and something I wanted.” Greed was remarkably blasé about having threatened a 14-year-old with dissection. “I figured you’d see reason that way,” - _Wait Greed Is my hair greasy-_ “not only would you have saved your brother if you’d given me what I asked for, but you’d also have gotten information you badly wanted,” - _Greed please you really need to bathe-_ “it’s not _my_ fault your convictions or whatever didn’t allow you to compromise.” Greed placed another rabbit bone on the small pile next to him. “I still don’t get what that was about, why refuse to trade when I had something you wanted? When it would save your brother? And don’t tell me you didn’t want it, even if your brother hadn’t literally _begged_ for a chance for you to negotiate, I could see it in your eyes.” Greed tilted his head back and regarded Ed with interest.

Ed clenched his jaw with quiet fury. “I wouldn’t expect _you_ to understand,” he growled through his teeth. Alphonse… The last he’d seen of his brother had been his silver back disappearing into a blizzard to warn Winry’s group of danger at Briggs. His throat tightened as he thought about them, were they able to escape? Were they safe? And was this inhuman abomination suggesting he didn’t care… “It’s like I said,” he nearly snarled, “you kidnapped my brother and hurt my teacher, no good person does that, and I don’t negotiate with bad people. I’m here now because there’s bigger things at work, not because I think you’re worth following.” Ed crushed the bone he was holding in his metal fist and threw the shards into the firepit, continuing with his rant, “and didn’t you say you don’t lie? You say you don’t hurt women, so what was the big deal breaking my teacher’s hand like that? You do _remember,_ don’t you?”

Greed’s expression had hardened during Ed’s tirade, however he let out a laugh at the last statement. “Gahaha! You think I went after your teacher? I just stood there! It wasn’t my fault she punched me hard enough to bust up her hand like that!” He leaned forward, good humor back in his expression. “What an incredible woman, I can see why you’re so bothersome to fight, with a teacher like that! She just went through my chimeras like paper-“ Abruptly Greed’s demeanor shifted again, the smile falling off his face as he turned his head away, shaking it as if to dispel unwanted memories.

Ed eyed the homunculus after his sudden silence, and when no more comments were forthcoming turned away himself to stare into the smoldering remains of the fire. Of course teacher had overextended herself, that was the only way she ever got injured… His thoughts idly drifted, and he wondered what she’d say if she saw him now, allied with three former enemies, one of whom had kidnapped his brother? He smiled to himself. If he was being honest, she’d just be happy he wasn’t working for the military any more. And he _was_ doing this for Al, Ling had said something about using the gate that Father bastard was supposedly going to open to get their bodies back, and he still had to get whatever other information that cat-eyed jerk had. He’d need to be smart about that, he thought, glancing at Greed’s turned back, bastard would probably ask for something in return. Alphonse… Wish you were here… Ed’s eyes started drifting closed.

_Greed my dude my buddy my good old pal greedy boy, it seems like something is bothering you, would you perhaps like to talk about it? **No.** Are you suuure? I can be a very good listener! **No.** _ Ling rested his chin in his hands and braced his elbows on his knees. _Are you reeeealy sure? Because it would seem at every mention of your past life, you start getting all moody! And we can’t have that! C’mon, you can talk to me! **Leave me alone, I don’t need to talk to anyone.** Oh, but I can’t leave you alone, remember? I’m always right here! And now I’m here for you! **Quiet, insolent human, I don’t need your yammering and I don’t need you.** _ Ling widened his eyes into a sly expression. _All right then, so you’re just planning on ignoring your memories and feelings forever? I can see more than you realize you know- **Shut up, pissant! You know Nothing about what I feel.**_ Greed rose to his feet in an irritated jerk, glancing over at his new subordinates. It looked like Darius was gently trying to get a very tired looking Ed to move to his makeshift bed (leaf pile) they’d each prepared earlier.

Greed turned away from the little group and began to walk into the darkening forest, his coat billowing behind him. Heinkel’s voice called after him. “Hey Greeling, or whatever, you should get some sleep, Darius is taking first watch.” Greed waved dismissively over his shoulder. “It’s Greed, get it right. And I don’t _need_ to sleep. I’ll be back in the morning.” With that, he strode off with the air of someone searching for the perfect tree to moodily perch in for the night.

~~~~

               “Nngh, nuhh… hgnds…” Ed rolled over in his restless sleep. “Wi’ry… no.. no… Al… ALPHONSE!” He jolted upright out of a nightmare, hand reaching out for something he could no longer see. He had another brief moment of panic in the darkness before he remembered where he was, and… why he was there. He was there because he’d failed, he’d failed to stop Kimblee, he’d failed to find Al again, he’d failed to keep Winry safe, and now she was either in chains at Briggs, or still in the company of her parents’ murderer…

 A massive snore broke him out of his unpleasant thoughts with a jump. Who, what!? Oh yeah, Gorilla Guy snored. How was that even worse now than when they’d been sleeping in the car? Ed rubbed his hands over his face, then felt around for the lantern. He probably wasn’t getting back to sleep at any rate, might as well take a walk. Judging by the stars, it looked to be around…3ish in the morning? He’d gotten out of practice reading the sky to tell time since he was nine. Finally finding the lantern, he clicked the dial to the lowest setting and turned it on.

Immediately two pinpricks of light became visible a bit further in the trees, much, much too high off the ground to be the eyes of a fox of racoon. “Whu! Hey! Stay Back!” Ed lurched to his feet, increasing the lantern’s brightness to reveal-

“Calm down, Elric, it’s just me,” Heinkel said, sitting with arms crossed on one of the logs around the firepit. “And turn that light down, we don’t need to attract attention.”

Ed stood blinking, halfway to an exaggerated martial art pose, before gathering his wits and dimming the lantern. “Yeesh Lion Guy, you could’ve told me your eyes could do that creepy animal glow thing,” he said resentfully, trying to cover his embarrassment.

The blond man sighed. “You didn’t ask. And it’s Heinkel, kid. Do I need to start wearing a nametag?”

Ed waved his hand. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m going for a walk. And before you ask no, won’t go far, don’t worry.” He turned to start making his way up the small hill next to their campsite.

“Hmph. Don’t make me come after you if you get into trouble, kid.”

Ed trudged his way up the hill, keeping the lantern mostly covered with his jacket so only enough light to see his feet filtered through. Reaching the top, he sat down in a patch of grass and switched the lantern off. The surrounding countryside was almost completely dark, with only a few distant lights from isolated cabins. If he squinted, he could maybe see a slight brightness on the horizon from Central’s lights. He wrapped his arms around his knees. Central… That’s where all their problems were, the homunculi, the corrupt government, ‘Father…’

And where were Al and Winry now? He had the sudden horrible thought they might think he was dead, if they’d heard about the mine collapse he was in. Shitshitshit… No no no this wasn’t how it was supposed to be, they were supposed to meet up, no, None of this was how it was supposed to be, Winry shouldn’t have been at Briggs in the first place, she was supposed to be safe in Rush Valley, he and Al weren’t supposed to have gotten split up… Al was supposed to be here, be here for when he woke up in the middle of the night, be there to talk to, to tell Ed about the new book he was reading, the meteor shower he’d seen, waking up wasn’t supposed to be this lonely…

“Enjoying the view?”

Ed nearly experienced his second premature heart attack of the night, jumping to his feet before tripping on a root in the dim starlight. “Gah! Ow! GREED IS THAT YOU, YOU BASTARD” A light chuckling from a nearby tree confirmed his suspicions. “Did you follow me or something, you creep?” Ed dusted himself off before feeling around for the lantern, turning it on to reveal a dim shape in the lower branches a few trees over, a shape with bright red… reflective eyes… He shuttered the lantern.

Greed’s voice drifted down as he replied, “Naw, I didn’t follow you, I’ve been here all night. It really is the best view, and of course, I only want the best.” Ed rolled his eyes.

“Hey, I wanna talk to Ling. We weren’t finished when you rudely interrupted last night in the safehouse.” Might as well take a shot, Ed figured. He certainly didn’t want to talk to _Greed_ about anything at the moment.

“I told you kid, that’s not happening,” Greed said nonchalantly, “And besides, brat’s asleep now anyway.”

Ed looked over questioningly at his unseen companion. “Wait, he sleeps? Don’t you not need sleep?”

Greed chuckled again. “ _I_ don’t need sleep, but your friend’s mind still does, for whatever reason. You mortals are weird. Good thing though, else I’d have no peace and quiet.”

Since Ling looked like a dead end, and Ed had no desire to try to wrangle information out of a homunculus in the wee hours of the morning, he decided his stargazing was done. “Well this was fun, we’ll have to do this again never! Enjoy your darkness hills,” Ed said sarcastically, gathering his jacket and beginning to walk back to camp.

_You should talk to him!_ Greed twitched on his perch. **_Weren’t you supposed to be asleep, brat?_** _Well now I’m awake!_ Ling reclined in his place in the roiling mass of souls in his shared mindscape, his hands behind his head. _C’mon, you guys have a lot in common! It sounds like you both have terrible fathers, you could bond over that! **I don’t need to “bond” with anyone, I’m already their boss so I’ve got what I wanted.**_

Ling smirked knowingly. _Mmmhmmmm riiight. Anyway, it’s not healthy to keep all your thoughts inside you like this! And you’re Clearly not able to deal with them on your own, you can’t even Think about your past without getting all moody! And that’s not good ‘boss’ behavior at all! **Are you mocking me, brat?** Oh heavens no, I would never! Oh, I know! _Ling sat up and clapped his hands together. _Tough guys like you need to punch it out when you’re having emotional talks! That way it’s manlier! And since you can’t really punch Me, you’d just be punching yourself after all, you could try Ed! Just start punching him, or better yet mention how vertically challenged he is, and he’ll punch you back no problem, and then Ta-da! You can talk about your feelings without being vulnerable!_ Greed pinched the bridge of his nose. **_Not happening, brat. Now go back to sleep and leave me in peace._** _Hmmmm Fine, but don’t worry, I’ll be sure to bring it up again in the morning!_ Had anyone been there to see it, Greed’s expression might have been described as “very done.” As the voice in his head (finally) quieted he lowered his hands from his face and turned to where the faint hint of dawn was showing at the horizon.


	2. Gathering Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greed and Ed each take some alone time.

“Man, what I wouldn’t give for some good coffee.” Darius looked mournfully into his water cup. The weather that morning was nice, if a bit cloudy.

“Well if _someone_ had gotten some from the store like we asked instead of spending all the money on bread and kabobs, we _would_ have some,” Heinkel said pointedly, shooting a dirty look at the blond child shoving berries into his mouth across the cold fire pit.

Ed looked unapologetic. “Hey, that stuff’s bad for your heart, you’ll live a lot longer if you lay off the caffeine.” The chimeras both wore the universal “I’m being lectured by a sanctimonious teenager” face.

“We’ll just be sure to get some more next town we go to,” Greed said, having returned from his midnight jaunt. It was obvious the comfort of his subordinates was very important to him.

 Ed shivered internally; it was weird to see the homunculus acting _nice,_ let alone wearing Ling’s face to do so. Maybe it would be less weird if he didn’t look directly at him. “Too bad we’re several days walk from the nearest town that won’t have our wanted posters plastered all over it,” Ed started griping, “Which wouldn’t be a problem if _someone_ hadn’t lied about being able to drive!”

Greed held his hands up. “Hey, I can drive just fine! Those other people were on the wrong side of the road!”

“NO THEY WERE’NT YOU IDIOT, _YOU_ -“

Ed shot to his feet, but Darius interjected before the shouting match could develop any further. “It doesn’t matter, we would’ve had to leave the car at the bottom of a ditch either way, the military was starting to put up checkpoints. And we’re all wanted fugitives, remember?”

Greed turned up his nose. “You mean _you’re_ all fugitives, I would’ve been fine driving, you all could just hide in the trunk-“

“What do you mean ‘you’d be fine!?’ Didn’t you say you literally attacked Bradley!?” Ed looked at Greed in disbelief. “You know, the Fuhrer? The leader of this entire country??”

_You Did try to kill him in front of his wife, you know. Did you seriously not think that’s something you’d be shot on sight for?_ It seemed Ling also hopped onto the roof of the “berating Greed” train.

“Hmph.” Greed stood up. “Don’t forget I’m the boss here, and I expect respect.” He turned and began walking off into the trees.

“You have to _earn_ that first,” Ed called after Greed’s retreating coat. That guy sure does like running away when he’s losing a fight, Ed thought. He grabbed another handful of blueberries.

“So, Edward,” Heinkel said, with the air of someone who’d been waiting for an opportunity to brooch some subject, “Yesterday you said your father doesn’t talk to you, did you want to talk about that?” Darius also leaned in. “We’re here for you, you know, if you ever want to discuss anythi-“

Ed launched to his feet as if stung. “Uh I just remembered another berry bush I’ll just gopickthatbeforeIforgetwhereitisBye!” He was off into the trees in a flash of tacky boots and leather pants.

Heinkel sighed. “You know, I didn’t think this gig would be so close to a babysitting job,” he remarked to his partner.

 Darius nodded. “Yeah, these kids are going to be the death of me. Or themselves, more like. Still, beats being Mr.- er, Kimblee’s personal butlers.”

Heinkel shuddered. “I still have nightmares about the foot massages he ordered.”

Darius made a warding sign against evil before replying, “We’re never speaking of that again, remember? Anyway,” He turned to where their self-proclaimed bosses had vanished into the trees, “reckon we give them a couple hours before checking in?”

Heinkel thought about it. “Let’s give them one.”

~~~~

Greed stalked through trees, paying no mind to the birds falling silent at his approach. How dare those three question him, his word, he was Greed, they should be grateful to be on his team, under his leadership, under his protection, his old crew would never- He shook his head sharply, attempting to dislodge the emotions clutching at his chest.

_You can't ignore this forever you know._ Ling sat in his usual cross-legged pose. He crossed his arms as he began his hourly Greed call-out. _Keep going like this and you're going to destroy yourself. Your soul, and their souls, are in unrest, you need to make peace if you're going to get anywhere with your life that's not staring tragically into the distance every five minutes!_

**_Why do you care,_** Greed growled. _What do you mean why do I care, like it or not I'm along for this ride too! And I don't want to get stuck staring into some pond for all eternity because You're bad at processing grief! **I'm not grieving, I'm angry my stuff was stolen!** Anger is a stage of grief, dumbass! And if this was just about your stuff getting stolen, getting new things would fix that, and we Both know that hasn't happened. _

Greed glanced involuntarily back to the place he’d left Ed and the two chimeras. **_That’s… That’s beside the point!_** He paced restlessly between a pair of oaks. **_I’m going to make Wrath pay for what he stole from me, And get what I want!_** He bared his teeth in a broad grin. **_And I want everything! You know nothing, brat. I WILL win, and-_** _And fill that gaping hole in your chest?_ Ling rested his chin in one of his hands, unimpressed by the homunculus’s bravado. _Revenge won’t fill that hole, revenge won’t get you peace. Besides,_ he teased, _isn’t revenge is a very Human thing to want?_

**_Tch._** Greed kicked at a dead log. **_What do you know about any of this anyway? Thought you said you were a prince, not a shrink._** _It’s part of my lessons! An emperor must be sound of mind as well as body to rule effectively! **Yeah yeah, whatever. But as you pointed out, I’m Not human, and you can’t comprehend what I feel, what I need-** Oh is it need now, what happened to “want?” **Shut up!**_ His pacing became more agitated. **_They were Mine, and no one steals from me! That’s all this is!_**

_Oh really? They were just things to you? These people, whose faces haunt your every waking moment?_

**_Shut up!_ **

_Whose voices echo in the deepest parts of your mind?_

_**SHUT UP!**_

Ling pressed onwards through the shards of static beginning to invade the mindscape. _These people,_ _their names imprinted on your soul, they were just things? Their eyes, you see them watching from every shadow, their blood still staining your sl-_

“ **SHUT UP SHUT UP!** ” Greed screamed aloud this time, clutching his head against Ling’s words, trying desperately to banish the static threatening to overwhelm him again. “They were mine! My subordinates! Mine! My property! That’s it”

Ling made his reply, softer than the last time he’d uttered the words, but no less accusatory: _Then why are you in so much pain?_

**_“NO!”_ **

Ling suddenly found himself buffeted by the most intense set of mental blocks Greed had ever thrown at him, tougher even than anything Greed had used during his time as Father’s guard dog. _Hey!_ Ling slammed his fists against the unyielding mental null space now enclosing him. Even the racket from the tormented souls was muted. Ling grimaced in frustration. Wasn’t emotional turmoil supposed to make it _easier_ for him to take control from Greed?

_Stop running away! Greed, you need to listen! You’re just hurting yourself more!_ He made a futile attempt to reach his captor by shouting into the void, to no avail.

Meanwhile, the homunculus remained hunched for a moment as he regained his breath, hissing through his teeth before straightening, his face hardened. No more bothersome noise, he should have done this a long time ago. No more pain either, because he was Greed, he didn’t need those pathetic _human_ weaknesses, his memories meant nothing, he could ignore them to his heart’s content, all he needed was his avarice. He would take and take and take until everything was his, everything. He reached down to grab a stone from the ground, holding it in front of his slightly unfocused eyes. This was his.

“Mine,” he muttered, tightening his grip. His eyes fell on the forest floor, littered with sticks and rocks and leaves. “All mine.” He reached out his hand.

~~~~

For not the first time in his short life, Ed wished books were more portable. Because then _maybe_ he’d have had some with him when he started his new impromptu life on the run from the government with a couple of mostly human military deserters and an occasionally human, mostly not, months old sin made flesh that ran away from home. And then _maybe_ he wouldn’t be so _bored._ Usually, boredom was no big deal. Al would be there, they could idly chat, he could let his mind wander as they waited for Mustang to finish doing something stupid, probably, so they could do their mandatory monthly briefing. Not that the bastard ever got the paperwork done on time. But now, now… he couldn’t afford to let his mind wander, and there was no one convenient nearby that he wouldn’t rather eat his own shoe than talk to about anything. Especially since he now knew that wasn’t all that bad an option.

He poked a stick at a mossy rock in the stream before tossing it into the current, watching it fitfully drawn downstream as it hung up occasionally on partially submerged rocks and debris. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been away from his brother for this long. There’d maaaaybe been the week he’d gone to Central alone for his license exam, but he’d known he was coming home soon. Now, he didn’t know _when_ he’d be able to see Al again, see Winry, make sure they were ok, make sure they weren’t paying the price for his stupidity, his failures-

He slapped his cheeks a couple times, nope, not thinking about that, that’s what he’d been Trying to avoid, he just needed to find something to distract himself. Practicing alchemy was out, transmutation left distinct traces, something he was trying to avoid while defying the evil shadow government run by his father’s slightly worse twin. Well, he had plenty of sticks and plenty of dirt, there was no reason he couldn’t work out some calculations! He grabbed the nearest convenient twig with a determined expression. Now, which calculations? Maybe the Helium binding problem he’d been working on with Al- Nope. Maybe some metal-protein interactions he’d been researching to help Winry- Haha nope. Maybe…? Seizing upon random inspiration he began frantically scribbling in the dirt, chanting the periodic table under his breath. Some way above his twitching antenna the clouds began to darken.

~~~~

Darius wasn’t getting paid enough for this. Admittedly he wasn’t getting paid, but if he had been, whatever amount still wouldn’t have been enough, and leaf beds and berries for dinner _really_ weren’t cutting it. Greed had not been hard to track, he’d just walked in a straight line before stopping and… doing… that… The little clearing in the trees now housed an honestly impressive pile of rocks and all other manner of forest detritus, a pile that reached almost to Darius’s nonplussed face. A pile the self-proclaimed 200-year-old homunculus (Darius had some doubts about the age) had constructed in under an hour. Out of what looked like anything not deeply rooted for a hundred meters out from the clearing. As Darius watched, the prodigal sin returned, lugging an armful of More Rocks over to the small mountain and gently placing his cargo on the slopes. While muttering. Somehow Darius didn’t think this was a good sign.

“Hey Greed, you OK there?” The homunculus appeared to ignore him. Oookay this was fine and not weird, although it really wasn’t that bad considering what had happened in the past week and a half, but he felt ‘helping a kid use his soul to heal his rebar injury” was a skewed baseline. “Greed, it’s about lunchtime, come get some food.” Still nothing. Darius approached Greed, who continued to ignore him in favor of searching out more rocks.

As he got close he began to make out the fitful mutterings of “Mine. All mine, it’s mine, mine… all mine, mine…” Oh boy. Well this was great, the new “boss” apparently went off the deep end, _and_ it looked like it might rain later. Well, no sense leaving the kid? out here; Darius closed the distance between himself and his wayward superior and with a deft motion grabbed and tucked him under his arm. Greed, for his part, failed to react, and simply clutched the rocks in his arms and continued his chanting. Darius mentally swore to never let the guy out of his vision Ever Again. He certainly hoped Heinkel was having an easier time with Edward.

~~~~

Heinkel wasn’t getting paid enough for this. Sure, this wasn’t the worst thing he’d walked in on an alchemist doing, but Kimblee was someone who murdered for a living and enjoyed his job. Elric had certainly been productive. Equations and sketches littered the forest floor, with the occasional transmutation circle diagram thrown in. It might have looked very impressive and science-y if it weren’t for the child in the middle, scribbling and muttering. A child covered in dirt. And what looked like war paint made from crushed berries. Taking a closer look at the drawings also didn’t help, and after Heinkel squinted past the questionable artistic ability for a few seconds, he could make out what looked like lots of drawings of… ants…

The crude pictures seemed to show some mechanism for making ants bigger, with several series of drawings of ants in gradually larger sizes, like something out of a super hero film. Next to one of these pictograms was the word “GIANT” with the last three letters underlined multiple times. Still other sketches, some done over crossed-out equations, depicted the large insects attacking stick figure people, one of whom wore square glasses while another, his leg detached, seemed to be also on fire. As Heinkel made his way to where Ed was chuckling manically to himself, he also passed a scribble of another stick figure, this one with some kind of crown and scepter, and oddly enough, one antenna, surrounded by what might have been large ants bowing down.

Heinkel, his face long since passed through the stages of grief to land on tired acceptance, stood in front of the disheveled alchemist, preparing to interject on the other’s chants of “All is one, one is all… All is one, one is all…” Is this just what the kids were into nowadays? “Hey Elric, it’s going to rain soon, come make a shelter do we don’t have to get wet.”

Ed waved his hand in Heinkel’s general direction. “Not now leave me alone I’m busy. Gotta get this right…”

The chimera sighed. He was somewhat familiar with the disconnect from reality alchemists sometimes got, at least there was less creepy laughter with this one. He decisively lifted Ed off the ground by his feet and proceeded to unceremoniously dunk his head in the river over the boy’s garbled screams.

“Now that your face isn’t covered in crap, come make a shelter.” Heinkel gave Ed his freedom and the squirming alchemist hit the ground with a dull thud.

Ed was having problems speaking a language that could be understood by other humans. “Hufder you I workportent! Doing things! Dontouch!” He continued sputtering for a bit before getting his footing, drawing himself up to his inconsiderable height to face off with the unimpressed Heinkel. “Hey what’s the big deal Lion Guy, I was in the middle of something!”

“I’m sure you were, but now we need to make sure we don’t get wet when it starts raining, and it so happens you are the most… _competent_ person around to do that,” Heinkel replied with some non-zero amount of sarcasm. “Now let’s go, or do I have to carry you?”

Ed looked like he was about to start arguing again when a gust of wind picked up, blowing dirt across his scribblings and a large leaf into his face. “Phwah! Ugh fiiiiine, I’ll go back to camp. Whatever I make will have to be small though, can’t leave too much evidence for someone to find.” He dusted himself off with as much dignity as he could muster (very little) and strode off towards camp without waiting to see if his companion would follow. Heinkel rubbed his hand over his face before walking after the smallchemist.

~~~~

“Soooooo uhhh what’s up with Greeling?” Ed and Heinkel had arrived to Darius setting the unresponsive Greed on one of the logs, where the homunculus now sat muttering to himself.

Darius shrugged. “Don’t know, found him like this in front of a big pile of rocks. Is this something he does often? You knew him before or something right?”

Ed shook his head. “I mean I met him once before, but like he wasn’t in that body, I’ve met the guy whose body that is a bunch of times, he doesn’t do anything like that-“ Darius was looking sorry he asked. “-so this is probably Greed being nutso or something…” Ed trailed off as Greed leaned off the log and began gathering up the rocks and half-burned sticks from the firepit, his dull chorus of “Mine… mine…” just audible over the wind rustling the trees.

“Hey what’s the matter with you?” Ed walked over and slapped the things out of Greed’s arms. What was going on with this guy? Greed offered no response, simply reaching out again to pick up the dropped items. Ed inwardly shuddered. Something was very off about the person in front of him. It occurred to Ed the homunculus seemed less like himself and more like the being of pure avarice he always claimed to be. A glimmer of something flickered briefly in Greed’s vacant eyes, and Ed had the uncomfortable realization that the homunculus was acting just like he had been, maybe more ramped up to 11. Greed was trying very hard not to think about something. That’s right, Greed hadn’t said How he’d gotten his memories back. What the hell happened?

“What the hell happened to you?” Ed echoed out loud. Greed turned away, face still slack, but his eyes began to betray some pain. His murmurings became more like mumbles. Clearly, something had broken, maybe even worse that Ed’s own fractures. And what the hell could he do to help? “Hey c’mon, what’s the matter with you? You’re Greed, aren’t you? What happened to owning that? What happened to the guy trying to take over the world? Like an hour ago? You’re just pathetic now!” Nailed it. And some trace of anger did appear on Greed’s face. He slowly turned back to Ed, as if to confront his accuser. Something that might have been more effective had he not looked like he was sleepwalking.

“Pull yourself together! Stop all this bullshit nonsense where you’re acting weak! You look like you’ve given up! Weren’t you going to be the king of everything? You’re not even king of yourself anymore!” All right good he looked a little angrier. Ed kept pushing. Whatever weird thing was going on with Greed, it needed to stop. “You’ve gone and lost yourself, Greed! Don’t you want to be yourself? Some greed you are, if you can’t even hold onto what’s yours!” Hoo boy did that hit home.

“SHUT UP SHUT UP!” Greed clapped his hands over his ears, hunching in on himself as his face twisted, finally throwing off the vacancy in favor of wide eyes and bared teeth.  “They were mine and I lost them I lost them mine mine they were mine mine lost I couldn’t… I couldn’t…” Greed’s eyes started to lose focus again as his rambles grew softer.

Ed was admittedly out of his depth but that didn’t stop him from yelling things. “Hey if you’re going to be all sad be sad! Just stop all this dumb shit where you can’t even hold a conversation! Look at me, I’m traumatized too and I’m still talking just fine! Don’t say anything-” He pointed at Heinkel and Darius. “-Didn’t you say we were your subordinates now? Pull yourself together or you won’t even be able to lead _us_!” Was this what this was about? Was Greed just an insecure leader? Naw, it was the ‘hold on’ comment he’d reacted to, had he lost-

Something clicked, and Ed felt very stupid, a feeling hitherto unfamiliar to him due to a cocktail of denial and general obliviousness. Of _course_ Greed had lost things, he’d lost _everything he had,_ Ed couldn’t believe it had taken him this long to remember. Aw jeeze, a “there there” probably wasn’t going to cut it, this was Al’s area not his, what was- He was sidetracked by some stray water droplets; the gathering clouds had finally begun to reach critical mass.

Heinkel put an urgent hand on Ed’s shoulder. “Hey Fullmetal, how about that shelter?” Ed nodded, glancing back at Greed’s hunched form; but that could probably wait, a roof came first.

Greed looked up as the clouds finally broke, rain drops beginning to hit his face, rapidly increasing in tempo. All the emotions of the day, no, he wasn’t supposed to have these things, he was a homunculus, he didn’t have the same weaknesses as humans, he only felt greed, right? Ling’s words haunted him again, as if the brat has spoken them aloud once more, a final point in an argument Greed hadn’t realized he’d already lost.

“ _Then why are you in so much pain?”_

He stared upwards into the heightening downpour, oblivious to his companions’ scrambling, to Ed relenting to use alchemy and making a hasty shelter next to a boulder a ways into the trees, oblivious to the faintly rust-colored drips from his sleeve.

“Hey Greeling, you want out of the rain!? Let’s g-“ Ed ran over with his jacket over his head, searching for the wayward member(s) of their group. He stopped when he got close to the firepit, confronted with the sight of Greed lying flat on his back, staring unblinkingly upwards into the unrelenting rain. “Uh, OK, if that’s what you wanna do, help yourself, don’t be mad if we don’t let you in our cabin because you’re all soaked!” Ed turned and hustled back to his shelter, leaving the homunculus unmoving in the forming mud. He would probably be fine…?

Ling felt the mental blocks Greed had used to imprison him start to dissolve, and he began to feel vague sensations of the outer world again. Was it… raining? Were they… just lying in the rain? What…? He “looked” over to Greed’s giant face mental projection, sensing more emotional turmoil, but this seemed… less wild, more controlled. Seems someone was finally facing their emotional trauma. But why in the rain…? Wait, was this guy just waiting for the correct _weather_ to deal with his problems? Ling sighed, whatever worked, he supposed.

He called out to the homunculus, _You never see rain before or something?_

The water streaming down Greed’s face was rather more saline than the drops falling from the sky. **_Of course I’ve seen rain before, brat. It just feels like… It’s been a while…_**

The clouds marched onwards. Somewhere over by the creek, frogs began to sing.


	3. Airing Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rain stops and everyone acts like responsible adults.

**CH 3**

Ed looked out at the drenched forest from the small cabin he’d alchemized. Fortunately, he’d had the foresight to elevate the floor a few inches so the little torrents of water flooding the forest floor stayed outside. He’d even made little stools (he was proud of the detailed skull feet), so they wouldn’t have to wait out the storm on the floor. What he hadn’t anticipated was the smell of damp chimeras.

“Jeeze you guys were getting on _my_ case about being smelly.” Ed waved his hand in front of his nose exaggeratedly.

“Trust me, it’s worse for us than it is for you,” Heinkel growled. “And may I remind you if you’d made a shelter the first time I’d asked this would not be as bad-“

“OK OK fine I get it,” Ed huffed. He folded his arms. Great, now he _really_ had nothing to do. Well, he could record the little, fevered headway he’d made on the question of Could Ants Be Alchemized? He took out his only slightly soggy encoded travel log and started scribbling, beginning to bounce his leg as he muttered to himself.

After a space Darius cleared his throat. “So Edward, we didn’t get a chance to talk earlier, but is there anything you wanted to get off your chest?”

“It doesn’t have to be about your father,” Heinkel chimed in, leaning forward and adjusting his glasses. “We know you’ve been through a lot, so if there’s anything on your mind, we’re listening.”

Ed paused his scribbling and glared over his journal. Of course, they were trying this again, when he couldn’t just run off. He seriously considered making an escape into the rain anyway. Why did it feel like he suddenly had two new parents, nagging, lecturing and all? However, he hesitated before enacting his plan to make a break for it and create his own personal castle with anti-probing question catapults. He wasn’t going to waste breath on _Hohenheim,_ but he did have some… things…

“You guys ever feel lonely?” The anger in Ed’s voice, along with his violently crossed arms and resolute glare at the wall, made it clear that, while he was talking, he wasn’t enjoying it. The two men shared a surprised glance at Ed actually responding.

Heinkel rubbed his chin; this was clearly a delicate situation, but years on the battlefield had given him the finesse needed to maneuver such potentially dangerous situations as an emotional talk with a teenager. “Of course, everyone feels lonely at some point. It might be because all your friends are busy-“ This kid _had_ friends, right? “-or you lose someone you care about. The feeling doesn’t last forever, though,” Heinkel said in his best ‘wise sage’ voice.

“Yeah, you just got to look around you, and nearly always you can find people who can help with the feeling,” Darius added. The implication was not lost on Ed, who rolled his eyes, but refrained from a disparaging comment. Darius debated how deep to probe; this was probably brought on by those people he’d gotten separated from at Briggs, both his brother and the girl being kept for leverage, but directly asking might make Edward close off again. He settled for a carefully crafted comment. “Sometimes you just need to trust you won’t always feel that way, and that people will come back to you, in the end.”

Ed gave the two men a sidelong glance and a surly “Hmph” before turning his back and scribbling furiously in his journal again, the conversation clearly over. Heinkel and Darius shared a look and a shrug; they’d take the lack of outright ridicule as a win. Baby steps, Darius thought, but he’d take it. He turned to watch the rain through the small windows Ed had created in the wall, trying to ignore the spikes and screaming dragons built in the windowsill.

~~~~

Ling couldn’t feel his legs, but at least he _could_ feel that he couldn’t feel them, an upgrade from the previous… period of time. He wasn’t actually sure how long he’d been confined to the Silence Cube, time passed weirdly when you were literally a prisoner in your own mind. He could also feel that his body was hungry, which was unacceptable, but for once he held off bothering the sin about it. He currently had a pretty good back-row seat to Greed finally coming to terms with the idea he did in fact care more about his “possessions” than he’d previously admitted. If the vague snatches of memories he could “see” the homunculus thinking about were any indication, he was also finally able to relive moments of his previous life (why were they mostly in a bar, had this guy lived in one or something?) without immediately punching something to try and make it go away.

The swirl of emotions he was getting leaned more towards sadness than the constant buzzing of anger that had been the backdrop of his mental existence since they’d left central, which was a nice change. He wasn’t sure he liked the implication that emotions were now a shared experience, had Greed been able to feel his this entire time? Was this not just an artifact from Greed going off the rails after killing possibly his only remaining friend? Ling tried to remember how things had felt when Greed was still working for Father. He hadn’t sensed nearly as much emotion then, but now that he thought about it he wasn’t sure Greed _had_ many strong emotions during that time, just the flashes of annoyance that came through whenever he couldn’t get his way. Come to think of it, the periodic resentment he’d personally felt might’ve corresponded with Greed becoming snippy. He made a mental note to try to keep a handle on his own emotions in case this was a two-way street.

He stretched the mental projection that was the closest thing he had to an actual body at this point and focused his attention, “moving” closer to Greed’s position in the mindscape. The homunculus did not immediately banish Ling to the depths of his subconscious, which he took as a good sign. Deciding he’d let Greed mope in peace for long enough, he called out, _Hey buddy, feeling that good old catharsis?_

**_Mmph._ **

Non-committal grunt instead of rage, still a good sign.

_Finally admitting you miss your friends?_

**_They weren’t my friends,_ ** came the automatic reply. Ling was about to make an exasperated comment when Greed continued, **_But… I do… miss them…_ **

All right, there we go. Ling made a wry smile, he supposed this was as good a start as any. Baby steps it was, then. _Well I’m very happy for you, you’ve shown great emotional maturity today, working out your problems like a functional person!_

**_Thanks, brat._ ** Greed’s uncharacteristically subdued voice gained a bit of its usual vigor in the form of sarcasm.

_So Greed, I’m glad you’ve worked some things through today, and in fact I do have another proposition for you, very relevant to our situation!_

**_…What, brat?_ **

_What do you perhaps think about getting my_ **_HAIR_ ** _out of the_ **_MUD_ ** _??_ Ling cupped his hands around his mouth to better emphasize the last few words.

Greed jerked his head irritably at the sudden change in volume, but did seem to finally realize he was lying in a dirty puddle. How long had it been? Blinking the still-falling rain out of his eyes he shook his head as he got his wits back about him and sat up, grimacing at the brief pins and needles before his regeneration soothed the bothered nerves. He sloshed to his feet and stretched, twisting his neck from side to side with several loud _cracks_ . **_There, are you happy now?_ ** He reached up and wrung the muddy water out of his ponytail, the continuing rain already beginning to wash his clothes clean.

_Happy-er. Could you not keep doing that with my neck? I’m pretty sure it’s Not meant to do that._ Ling was back in his usual cross-legged position.

**_My neck now, Princey-boy._ ** Greed looked over through the haze of rain to where the boxy form of Ed’s cabin stood out from the trees, then turned the opposite direction to a nice sized sycamore tree. No better way to wait out a rainstorm than in a good tree. Ling was pretty sure by this point that Greed didn’t really have a concept of what physical discomfort was.

Greed jumped up to the lower branches and started leaping his way higher.

_Watch it-!_

Ling’s warning came a tad too late as Greed misplaced his foot on the slippery bark and crashed his way back down several branches, finally coming to a stop with his feet dangling and his shielded claws buried deep in the tree limb.

_Smooth._

**_Can it._ **

_You know, if *I* was in control, we’d already be at the top of the tree by now._

Greed ignored Ling’s sly commentary as he swung his legs over and clambered back to his feet, continuing his ascent at a somewhat slower pace, keeping his claws in place for extra grip strength. Finding a good perch where he could watch the storm roll over the forest canopy, he (carefully) settled in, letting the hiss of the rain wash over him. The brat was being mercifully quiet, maybe he liked watching the rain too. Dolcetto had loved the rain, Martel too… Roa had hated it with a passion, for whatever reason.

Greed quirked a brief smile at the memories, still painful, but still _his._ His people, the people he’d failed, failed on multiple occasions he still couldn’t bear to think of, and now they were lost, _he’d_ lost them, he could never fix that... But somehow, thinking about them helped, remembering them helped, somehow, he could almost still feel them…

“I’m… sorry…”

The clouds gradually lightened as the rain began to slow to a drizzle.

~~~~

Edward poked his head out of the excessively ornate cabin door and stuck his left hand out experimentally. Not feeling any raindrops, he strolled outside; it looked like the rain had passed, the clouds were showing some blue sky. He performed some stretches to soothe his aching automail joints, those always seemed to act up around inclement weather. Darius followed him out, blinking in the brighter light, but Heinkel seemed reluctant to leave shelter until he was absolutely sure there would be no more water falling from the sky. “Hey chop chop, we gotta go check the snares!” Ed called out to the dawdling chimera, “Unless you wanna stay cooped up in there forever or something and starve?”

Grumbling, Heinkel relented and exited the cabin, glaring up at the clouds, which had parted to let sunlight through. Seeming satisfied that the rain was finished, he turned his attention back to the impatient child. “Fine. Lets go.”

  
“Let's split up, so we can cover the ground faster, you guys remember how I said to reset the snares, right?” Ed seemed eager to stretch his legs.

“No,” The two men said in unison.

“Er, I don’t remember that well, I’ll go with you so you can show me again,” Darius said quickly. No way were they letting this one off on his own again.

“I’ll go check the north snares,” Heinkel added, “and also keep an eye out for our friend Greed or whatever name he goes by.” He indicated the soggy depression that was the only sign of Greed in the campsite.

“Oh yeah, where’d he go?” Ed cupped his hands around his mouth. “HEY GREELING WHERE ARE YOU!” After a few seconds of no reply, Ed shrugged. “Yeah keep an eye out, maybe Ling took over and passed out again.”

The chimeras looked at him tiredly. “Maybe keep the yelling to a minimum, Elric,” Darius said, “we _are_ trying to avoid attention and all that.”

Ed scowled. “Yeah yeah fine. Let's go then, Gorilla Guy.”

“It’s Darius, do I need to start wearing a nametag?”

“I used that one already,” Heinkel called over from where he’d started on his way.

“Damn. Ok, do I need to tattoo it on your hand, so you’ll remember?” Darius finished.

Ed waved behind him dismissively, already starting off into the trees. Darius sighed and followed suit.

~~~~

“-And once you loop the cord through here, the rest is just like setting it up from scratch!” Ed finished his demonstration with a flourish. “All right, I’ll go get the east one if you wanna go for the other one that way.” Ed pointed in the direction they’d been traveling.

“Oh I’m not sure I got it, you should show me how to do the next one too,” Darius quickly said, motioning for Ed to follow him to the next snare, dead rabbit in hand.

Ed narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He was getting déjà vu from the Briggs mining town escapades, when there had also been people keeping an annoyingly close eye on him. Why did he suddenly feel like he was being babysat? Well he would show him! Losing this guy in the trees should be no prob- Oh right. He has a superhuman sense of smell. So how…? His eyes fell on a nearby bush, and a wicked grin spread across his face. He made as if to follow the other man, but as they walked by the bush Ed clapped his hands together. He plunged one into the foliage, deconstructing the plant and filling the air with vaporized sage.

Darius’s vehement cursing followed after as Ed made his escape, cackling gleefully to himself as he sprinted away from the cloud of potent natural oils. After a bit he slowed to a jog, self-satisfied smirk plastered on his face. Like he needed a babysitter anyway, he could survive on his own just fine, so why did they feel the need- what’s that? He backtracked and peered around a tree at the patch of black he’d seen out of the corner of his eye. There was Greed sitting on a log in the sun, still looking somewhat damp, and was he eating something? Ed picked his way closer through the underbrush, calling out, “Hey Greel-“ He stopped. What…?

The air around Greed was filled with… bees? And now that Ed was closer he could tell Greed was taking bites out of what looked like a slab of honeycomb. Well he supposed that would explain the angry swarm. Still didn’t explain _why._ “Heeyyyyy there Greed, you doin’ OK there?” Ed called over from a safe distance of 15 feet or so.

Greed turned at Ed’s approach and gave a small one-handed wave in greeting, a hand that Ed could now see was shielded. Along with his other one, holding the honeycomb. “Yeah I’m fine, thanks for asking, why wouldn’t I be fine?” Greed sounded slightly defensive.

“Oh I don’t know, it’s just you’re surrounded in stinging insects,” Ed replied sarcastically.

Greed blinked. Oh right, the kid meant the bees, and not his earlier odd behavior. “Oh it’s fine, there’s fewer now than there used to be.” Greed took another bite of honey, getting it all over his sleeve in the process.

Ed stared, a bit dumbfounded. “Aren’t… aren’t they stinging you? Doesn’t it hurt?”

Greed shrugged. “No they don’t hurt that much, it’s just a little annoying.”

“Isn’t there, oh I don’t know, some way you could prevent them stinging you, perhaps with some sort of impenetrable armor that covers your entire body?” Ed’s voice dripped with more sarcasm than the honey.

“Naw it’s fine, see?” As Ed watched, Greed reached up to where a bee had embedded itself in his forehead and flicked the insect away, and a small crackle of alchemical energy signified Greed’s healing after the stinger’s removal.

“Eugh.” Ed made a disgusted noise. Ok fine, this guy apparently would rather be repeatedly stung than use his shield, whatever. Maybe the fangs made it difficult to eat? “Sooo _why_ did you go and anger the bees in the first place?”

Greed tapped his head. “Brat wouldn’t shut up until I got something to eat.”

“You… do know we still have food at the campsite, right?”

Greed shrugged again. “I know, I saw the hive and I wanted it, and I take what I want,” he grinned, “because I’m Gr-“

“Yeah yeah you’re Greed, I _know._ You have terrible impulse control, did you know?”

“Ha, you’re one to talk.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that _I’m_ not the one who attacks anyone who so much as mentions your height.”

“HEY ARE YOU CALLING ME SHORT YOU-“

Greed arched an eyebrow.

“Hmph.” Ed crossed his arms. “My impulse control is fine, I don’t get into _that_ many fights, I’ve never been arrested or anything! If my impulse control was bad I would’ve gotten into trouble for it by now!”

“Whatever you say,” Greed smirked. He chuckled lightly as if appreciating some internal commentary.

Ed pouted a bit before changing the subject. “So you wanna share?” He pointed at the large chunk of honeycomb. It did look delicious.

Greed looked amused Ed would even ask. “You can get your own, the hive is back that way.” He jabbed a thumb off into the trees.

“I don’t want to stick my hand in a beehive, I don’t have an ‘Unbreakable Shield’ or whatever, and I don’t heal!”

“It’s ‘Ultimate Shield.’ And that’s too bad, then.” Greed took another bite.

“Grrrrrrr…” Ed growled under his breath as he stomped through the trees in the direction Greed had indicated. He wasn’t going to stick his hand in a beehive, that was stupid, he was just going to look, and then maybe find a stick or something. It wasn’t hard to find the beehive; a cloud of inhabitants was still buzzing resentfully around the outside. He could see into the hive, a bit above his eye level, where Greed must’ve grabbed off a chunk of honeycomb, honey oozing tantalizingly off the broken edges. There was a nice easy piece, he could just reach in and break it off and run for it, no problem- no, no that was dumb, he was going to be smart about this, maybe build a small fire, smoke them out first. But he _did_ have a metal hand…

~~~~

OK so maybe he did have an impulse control problem. But then why hadn’t he gotten in trouble for beating up people? Randos did like unfairly insulting him, wouldn’t he have at least gotten a stern talking to if he couldn’t resist the impulse to defend his honor? He had a sudden montage of every time his large metal brother had held him back over the last couple of months. Huh, was it just Al who was his impulse contr-

“DON’T BRING THEM OVER HERE, IDIOT!”

Oh so _now_ Greed suddenly objected to being around a swarm of stinging insects. “I thought you didn’t mind?!” Ed shouted as he vaulted over a log.

“Hey they still hurt!” Greed lurched to his feet, still clutching the remains of his own honeycomb, joining Ed in his harried flight from the vengeful insects. “What did you do, kill their queen??” The new buzzing cloud appeared to contain the entire population of the hive.

“Shut up! I don’t know!” How did you escape from bees?? Would they leave them alone if they ran far enough!? He couldn’t fight them, there were too many to punch, maybe if he tried some alchemy…? “Greed, watch your face!”

“Huh?”

Ed sloppily clapped his hands together as best he could when one had part of a honeycomb in it, and slapped one against a tree as he ran past, deconstructing the trunk in a spray of splinters into the swarm on his tail. “Take that you-“

“HEY WATCH IT-“

A moment after Greed’s exclamation the falling branches also hit Ed’s own head, knocking him sideways. Oh right, trees had those things on top. He struggled to extricate himself, getting his legs free and rolling to his feet in time to see Greed claw his way out from under the large branch on his back. He looked pissed, but that was probably more about his honeycomb now laying in the dirt. “Nice going, brat, you made me drop my stuff.”

“Hey at least it looks like it worked, how about a thank you for getting the bugs off our tail?”

“And whose fault was it they were after us in the first place?”

“Hey, _you_ started this-“

They were interrupted by a resurgence of buzzing as the very not-dead mass of angry insects converged on them again, cutting off their argument in favor of screaming.

They resumed their frantic flight through the trees, Ed swatting ineffectively at the bees around his face - _oh god oh god was that one down his shirt-_ distracted to the point he almost didn’t see they’d nearly reached the river. Wait, getting underwater, that was it! He made a beeline for the bank, hastily transmuting some rudimentary snorkels from a rock on the water’s edge. “Here-!” He made to throw one at Greed, but the homunculus just dove straight into the water. Maybe he didn’t need to breath…?

Ed sure did though, and he tried to carefully lower himself into the water to keep his breathing tube clear despite the insects stinging his face, his metal limbs easily weighing him to the bottom of a shallow patch near the bank. He rarely prayed, but he felt this situation warranted it, sending a quick request to anyone who might be listening that nothing crawled down his snorkel. It was hard to tell how much time was passing when laying at the bottom of a river while hopped up on adrenaline, but Ed was not keen to check if the insects had left.

He was considering the feasibility of spending the night underwater when a shadow abruptly crossed over his vision, and a moment later he felt himself yoinked upwards to come face to face with Darius’s unimpressed expression. He could see Greed getting the same treatment further in the river, with Heinkel hoisting him out of the water by his coat collar. The sopping homunculus was trying to protest this treatment but seemed to have too much water in his lungs to make much more than an indignant gurgling. Heinkel dumped Greed on the bank, allowing him to empty his lungs in a continuous stream from his mouth and nose. Yuk. Ed figured that answered his question on whether homunculi could survive without air, although judging from his expression it wasn’t a pleasant experience. At least it looked like the bees had cleared out.

“Hey Gorilla, you found me, haha! How about letting me down, huh?” The large man looked at him flatly, opting to continue holding the small alchemist off the ground. “C’mon, I was just having some fun! Hey, we found a beehive, if you put me down I can show you where-“

“We know.” Heinkel’s unamused expression rivaled his partner’s. “It wasn’t exactly hard to trace your trail.”

“Great! Perfect! So then howzabout letting me go, my legs still work just fine!” He kicked them in demonstration from where they dangled, dripping, several feet off the ground.

Darius didn’t bother responding. He deftly tucked Ed under his arm, reminiscent of the time he fake-kidnapped the boy, and turned to where Heinkel was pounding on a choking and wheezing Greed’s back. “You got him?”

“Yeah he’s fine. Meet you back at camp.”

Darius nodded and began making his way back through the trees, Ed’s shrill protests following along.

On the riverbank, Greed was discovering it was a lot harder to get water out of his lungs and air in than visa versa, and Ling’s chorus of _I told you so_ ’s wasn’t helping. This wasn’t the first time he’d decided to spend some time underwater in his life, but it _was_ the first time with a body that instinctively craved the motion of air in and out of its lungs, and the first time with a body that threw a hissy fit and had the gall to make him feel like he was dying when it didn’t get oxygen. His original, somewhat less human body didn’t have such inconveniences. Or a peanut gallery.

_You could have just stood there and used that fancy shield of yours, but nooooo you had to dramatically practice drowning._

**_Breathing water didn’t used to be a whole big deal for me, brat. Your pitiful human survival reflexes keep stealing my fun._ **

Staring upwards to the gently rippling surface of a river from underwater was a relaxing experience in Greed’s opinion, or would be if his body hadn’t spasmed every few minutes as it kept remembering it was dying. He hacked up some more water, how much could human lungs even hold?

_I’m still not convinced your so-called “Ultimate” shield can even cover your face._

**_Of course it can. I just don’t like using it because it makes me look ugly._ **

_Awwwww, well I’m flattered that you think my face looks nice enough to leave uncovered,_ Ling teased, _but I wouldn’t be insulted if you were to actually use it, per say in a fight to the death against, oh I don’t know, your brother who also has killed you multiple times before?_

Greed narrowed his eyes in annoyance. **_That would have made the fight too easy, I like my battles challenging,_ ** he brushed the prince off, coughing up the last of the river water. Finally, that was way more unpleasant than anticipated.

Ling crossed his arms; the concept of purposefully making a battle for your life _more_ difficult when there were other options was somewhat alien to him. _That’s still not a great reason you know-_

Greed abruptly stood up, turning to the chimera squatting next to him. “Thank you, Heinkel,” he said over Ling’s bothersome comments. “Now, camp is this way, right?” He pointed after Darius and Edward.

Heinkel stood up, expression relatively calm for someone who’d just fished out what should by rights be a dead person from the bottom of a river. He just looked unhappy to be wet if anything. “Yes, that’s the way back. And if you would kindly refrain from wandering off again, I would appreciate it.”

Greed smirked and patted the other man’s shoulder a couple times. “Don’t worry about it, your boss’ll just head right back no problem.”

_You’d better, I’m still hungry!_

“God, you never shut up about that do you,” he muttered, raising his voice to address Heinkel, who was definitely close enough to hear the first part, “And there’s still food at camp, yeah?”

Heinkel sighed, sounding like he might’ve spontaneously sprouted grey hairs. “Yes we have food, we got some more rabbits from the snares.”

Greed smiled. “Excellent! Great work!” Heinkel blinked at the enthusiastic praise. “All right then, let’s go!” Greed clapped his hand together and began walking back to camp, the chimera trailing him perhaps a bit closer than was strictly necessary. Something felt off, and reaching up Greed discovered Ling’s hair ribbon had come loose, his ponytail starting to slip free. He tugged the ribbon out of his hair and looped it around his wrist, figuring he’d tie it back up when they got back to camp.

Back at said camp, Darius had evidently let Ed back on terra firma. The boy was munching resentfully on a handful of berries from the bag one of the chimeras had put them in for storage during the rain storm. His face was starting to show signs of painful weals, some fun souvenirs from their earlier misadventures. Greed couldn’t help cracking a smirk at Ling’s gloating comments about their own lack of injury. The homunculus took a seat within easy reach of the berry bag and began helping himself.

For their part, the chimeras stood silently staring at the pair, and soon Ed squirmed uncomfortably under their “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” expressions. After a few moments he broke under the pressure, muttering through his teeth, “Ok ok I might’ve made a mistake, I will _try_ not to stick my hand in any beehives in the future.”

Darius nodded, responding, “Sounds good, kid.” He leaned over and put his face right next to Ed’s. “But if you ever pull anything like that on me again I will not hesitate to rip off your arm and beat you with it.”

“Tch! Jeeze! If you do that my mechanic will kill you though, so good luck with that!”

“I’ll use your other arm then, I’m not picky.”

“Hey! Just you try it you monkey-“

“Anyway,” Heinkel broke in, side-eying Greed who was sitting back and watching the proceedings with amusement, “We need to lay some ground rules, for _all_ our safeties. To minimize the possibility of running into other people, we should all stay within easy earshot of the camp“ -he shifted his glare between Ed and Greed- “and also so if anyone _does_ run into trouble, it’s easier to hear the screaming.” Heinkel caught the beginnings of Greed’s now-familiar self-important expression forming and added, “That is, if the _boss_ agrees it’s a good idea, _of course.”_

Greed smirked. “Ah good, you people are learning who’s in charge here.” - _Did you not catch his sarcasm or-_ “But yes, that seems like a decent idea. Can’t promise _I_ will always stay that close, but I’ll try to be close enough to help you guys out if something incredibly dangerous comes up.” He made to gesture, but got his hand caught in his hair. He ignored Ling’s sniggering, but it did remind him of something. “You also mentioned more rabbit?” He surreptitiously tried to tug his hand out of the long black hair that seemed to have a death grip on it.

Heinkel grunted. “Yeah sure, we’ll need to avoid making too much smoke though. Hey Fullmetal, you know anything about making a smokeless fire?” He moved to retrieve the firewood he’d stashed in Ed’s shelter during the rain.

Ed traded in his grumpy silence for a grumpy retort. “Sure, don’t worry, any idiot can make a smokeless fire, lets get it going so His Royal Pain can get some more food, sounds like a _fantastic_ plan.” He must have been hungry for something besides berries though, as he did reluctantly get to his feet and shuffle over to the fire pit, using a quick transmutation to make the damp ash into a solid bowl in the ground.

Greed leaned back, the sense of satisfaction he got from watching his underlings get to work a lifeline after a turbulent few days. This was something good, something he wanted, something he’d lost, true, but maybe he could regain a portion of it here. With a tug he finally freed his hand from the brat’s hair; he should really try to get that back up out of the way, it was cramping his style. He unwound the ribbon from his wrist and set to work trying to restrain the long sheet of hair clinging to his shoulders.

In the distance, a few birds had begun to sing in the fresh afternoon sunshine.


	4. Piece of Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ling Time.

_Are you sure you don’t need help?_

**_Yes I’m sure._ **

_Are you reeeeealy sure?_

**_Yes, I am ‘really’ sure. Now shut it and leave me alone._ **

_Are you really really sure? Because you’ve been trying this for how long-?_

**_No, I don’t need help, and no, I will not let you do it, I can handle this-_ **

“Hey Greeling, dinner’s about ready, no thanks to you.” Ed was by the low fire in the afternoon light hacking at a cooked rabbit to divvy it up. “And are you still messing with your hair? It’s been like half an hour, is a ponytail too far outside your skill level or something?

“No,” Greed responded through clenched teeth, “this hair is just obnoxiously thick is all. If it weren’t for the fact I never throw away anything that’s mine, I’d have half a mind to chop it off.” He shook his head slightly at the sudden flurry of internal protests at the very thought. “And can you stop calling me that? My name is _Greed,_ got it?”

“Sure, whatever you say, _Greed_ ling.” Ed thrust a chunk of rabbit at the homunculus.

Greed abandoned his hair in favor of accepting the food. “That is not better-”

“So,” Darius interjected, cutting off the impending bickering, “I hate to bring this up, since you all clearly know what you’re doing, but do we have an actual plan?”

“Yeah, such as a plan that might include where we are going?” Heinkel added with an expression of exaggerated interest.

“That’s simple, we are-“

“Well of course we-“

Ed and Greed paused to glare at each other. Ed finally rolled his eyes and gestured irritably for Greed to get on with it.

The homunculus smugly cleared his throat. “It’s simple, we hide out here until the day before Father plans to make his move, and then we make _our_ move.”

The others looked rather skeptical. “That’s it, we just stay here? We can’t do that, there’s people looking for us, remember? And what’s ‘our move’ going to be, anyway? Have you even thought that far ahead?” Seems Ed was taking issue with some parts of this plan.

Greed took a leisurely bite of rabbit before answering. “Don’t you worry about that, I’ve got it all figured out. All you’ll need to do is follow my instructions when the time comes. Or,” he smirked, “you won’t even have to do that, I’ll be able to take care of everything on my own anyhow.” He continued to chow on his share of the meat.

Ed looked incredulous, holding his hand out flat in a questioning gesture. “Sooooo that’s it, we’re just supposed to sit on our asses for how long? And trust that _you_ will be competent enough to just magically solve everything when the time comes?”

“Yup! Like I said, don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of everything! And besides,” he placed another rabbit bone at the growing pile next to him, “I’m the boss here, so if I say that’s what we’re doing, that’s what we’re doing.”

“Tch, you’re impossible.” The blond brat rolled his eyes. “Well, we _will_ have to move, though, we’re still pretty close to Central, too close for comfort, if you ask me.”

“Hmm, I say we’re fine.” Greed lazily rolled a bone between his fingers.

“Oh come on, do you _want_ your oh so friendly siblings to find us? We at _least_ need to discuss our options!”

Kid wasn’t letting it go; fine, Greed’d give him a chance to talk. “And just where would you suggest going?”

Ed looked thoughtful. “What do you think about heading to Dublith? That’s where my teacher lives, and maybe some of your old gang survived-“

The rabbit bone in Greed’s hand snapped as a bolt of pain shot through his head. _Survived..._ The others were staring at him now, but he ignored them as he turned to face into the trees, concentrating on trying to push back the sudden twisting in his chest, the waves of, of… of _guilt,_ this was guilt, like he’d felt when he couldn’t protect his team at Devil’s Nest, but with that there’s also anger, rage against the one who’d stolen from him, something to distract, to temper, something he could _act_ on, but now, now the only one to blame was himself…

He could feel Ling watching him, as always, but he didn’t need his commentary right now, his declarations and accusations… They wouldn’t change the blood on his hands, the one thing he couldn’t pin on that Wrath bastard, the thing he’d been avoiding more than any of the other awful, awful memories screaming inside his head… _Bido…_

Greed _knew_ him, he was smart, careful, he’d gotten that deep into Central, that close to Father’s lair, but for him to ignore caution, let Greed approach, he’d been so _hopeful,_ he’d _trusted_ him, fuck, he’d trusted Greed, his friend, and what had he done? Used that trust, that hope, played with it, toyed with the kid until he’d gotten close enough to see his own fucking face reflected in those wide, hopeful eyes…

Ling might have been saying something, but the homunculus was too deep in his own anguish to care. His former desperate attempts to avoid the issue came to naught as the specter of his mistakes crashed around him with a vengeance; he’d lost the last scrap he had of his former life, and it was his _own damn fault._

Heedless of the outside world, he sank into his souls, unable to avoid the merciless assault of realizations, the ones he’d tried so hard to ignore, that he hadn’t lost everything, he’d still had something of _his_ from that time, that time he’d known happiness, and he’d destroyed it with his own _fucking_ hands...

Ed watched as Greed slumped over. What now, was he _still_ having problems facing the deaths of his lackeys? Well, he either needed to figure out how to get over it or work towards breaking the laws of God to get his friends back, none of this moping business. He started slightly as Greed sat abruptly upright and turned back to their little circle. Oh good, was he done- wait a minute, that expression…

“…Ling?”

“Yup! It’s me! Long time no see, right?”

“Uh yeah man, great to have you back,” Ed blinked, thrown for a loop. “Sooo Greed let you out? What’s up with him, anyway?”

“Oh, he’s just having some memory problems.” After swiftly retying his hair, Ling leaned forward to try to snag another rabbit from the fire.

“Hey no, you already ate!” Ed tried to swat Ling’s arm away, but he nimbly avoided the attack.

“ _I_ didn’t eat, _Greed_ ate! _I’m_ still hungry!”

“You’re always hungry! Hey, stop him,” Ed commanded the chimeras. Memories of the prince’s appetite still vivid in their minds, the two men sprang into action. Darius lunged forward to pull the rest of the meat out of reach of Ling’s grabby hands while Heinkel seized him by the scruff of his jacket and lifted him into the air, where Ling hung limply, pouting.

“C’moooooon I haven’t gotten to eat in days! Let me have some!” He flapped an arm towards the skewered rabbits in Darius’s arms.  

Ed glared at the dangling prince, but eventually relented. It _had_ been a few days since Ling got to use his own face. Unless this was a ploy by Greed to get even more food, but Ed figured the homunculus would just take more if he wanted it rather than take this roundabout route. He gestured for Darius to hand over some of the food, and the man reluctantly relinquished part of a rabbit haunch.

Heinkel let Ling back on his feet, and he cheerfully grabbed the offered meat before reclaiming his seat and chowing down.

Ed watched, nonplussed. Ling _looked_ ok, for a guy currently being possessed by one of the seven deadly sins, didn’t even look overly grateful or triumphant at what sounded like his second taste of freedom (and food) in months. Ed did still have some questions, though.

“So Ling, was there any other information you learned about Father’s plans? You said he was going to open a gate, did he say what gate, where, how-“

“Well it’ll probably be under Central, that’s where all his other freaky stuff is. Dunno for the rest of it. So where’re Lan Fan and Fu now, is she doing ok? Are they still in Central?” Ling sounded slightly worried.

Ed scowled, a bit miffed Ling was blowing off his questions. “Naw they’re not in Central anymore, Old Man Fu came and picked up Lan Fan to take her to get some automail. I offered Winry’s help, but they said they didn’t want it.”

Ling nodded with a small smile. “Of course, she wants to keep fighting. Probably smart not to use someone so close to you though, no?”

Ed huffed irritably in response. Winry would have fixed Lan Fan up better than anyone else, but did anyone care? Noooooo.

Gnawing the last bits of meat off the leg bone, Ling turned to the two men watching their conversation. “So, I’ve never met a chimera before! Do you think I could have a demonstration?” He gave a cheery smile.

“Hey I’m not done asking you questions-“ Ed tried to interject over Ling ignoring him, to no avail.

At Ling’s question Darius looked away grumbling, but Heinkel stood up. After making a show of carefully folding his jacket and placing his spectacles neatly on top, he turned to his audience, striking a pose.

Immediately fur sprouted from his skin and his face shifted, elongating. He flexed and grinned, exhibiting his new feline muzzle, before shaking his head dramatically to display his new mane. Darius rolled his eyes at the demonstration, muttering something that sounded like “Show off.”

Ling clapped enthusiastically as Heinkel bowed. The lion man then rolled his neck, his animal features retreating until his face looked human again before re-donning his glasses and coat with a self-satisfied expression.

“That was pretty spectacular! Say, how does being a chimera affect your lifespan?” Ling leaned forward intently, a rabbit bone sticking out of his mouth like a cigar.

“Oh my god Ling, you can’t just ask everyone you meet if they’re immortal!” Sheesh, even possessed by a literal homunculus that’s all this guy could think about? “And you _already_ found immortality, what’re you asking them for?” Ed gesticulated at the bemused chimeras.

Ling put his chin in his hand. “Just curious,” he replied with a cheeky smile. “So how about it,” he turned back to the two adults, “your animal blood give you any other benefits?”

Darius shrugged. “No one we heard of’s really been a chimera long enough to see if it affects natural lifespan at all, so it’s hard to say.”

“The scientists who gave us these bodies probably weren’t that concerned with our long-term survival, so long as the military got a few good years out of us,” Heinkel added. “We’re probably better off than the earlier runs of chimeras though, I heard that a lot of those barely lasted more’n a few days.”

Ed had to fight back a sudden wave of nausea.

“Heh, don’t look so disappointed, kid. It’s not like most animals have very long lifespans anyway,” Darius addressed Ling, “hell I probably got luckier than most since gorillas can live a pretty long time. Longer than lions, anyway.” He jabbed a good-natured elbow into Heinkel’s arm. “I think I’ll go check the last few snares,” Darius added, abruptly standing up to dodge the other man’s retaliatory swat. “And no wondering off,” he glared at the two boys.

“Oh I wouldn’t dream of it!” Ling called after him.

“Yes you would,” Ed grumbled.

“Huh, I wonder if a tortoise chimera would…” Ling mused to himself.

“No, no that’s a bad idea Ling-“

“Hey Ed,” Ling spun back towards him. “What color are my eyes?” Ling pointed at his face, widening one eye in a sort of reverse wink.

“Oh they’re red, definitely 100%,” Ed replied, remembering their reflections in the lantern light the previous light.

“Drat,” Ling pouted again. “I know Envy had them, but Wrath didn’t so I was hoping… Ah well, not like anyone sees my eyes anyway.”

“You could get some sunglasses, maybe some nice round ones,” Ed suggested slyly.

“Heh, maybe I should get a vest to go with them then?”

“Ha, so Greed told you about all that?”

“No, I saw in some of his memories.”

“Wait, you can _see his memories-!?”_

“So how do my teeth look?” Ling started tracing around the inside of his mouth as he interrupted Ed yet again.

“Hmph.” Ed crossed his arms. “They’re not as pointy as the last ones Greed had, for sure. They do look like they could be conceivably human, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Ah, good.” Ling looked slightly relieved. “They sure _feel_ a lot sharper than my old ones. A side effect of getting an immortal body, I suppose. I wonder…?” He held up the rabbit bone and inspected it for a moment before sticking it back between his teeth and biting down with a decisive chomp.

Ed winced slightly as the bone splintered easily, eyes widening as Ling kept chewing. “Oh man can you just eat bones now? That’s so freaky!”  

“Wow rude,” Ling said around a mouthful of bone shards. After a few more chews he spat the rest into the fire. “Ick. Not good tasting enough for me, but good to know that’s an option the next time my _friends_ decide to try to starve me.”

Ed rolled his eyes before his scientific nature overcame him. “So what else can you bite through, huh? Let’s see, what’s tougher than bone around here…?” There was his automail, but he wasn’t _that_ invested. Yet.

“What about a rock?”

“Ooh yeah that’ll work! I think I saw some good ones on the edge of the camp over here-“

Heinkel watched the teenagers with tired eyes. He knew he should probably put an end to this, but if these kids were that set on eating rocks, who was he to stop them? Eat rocks, sure, whatever, old Heinkel will just mind his own business. He sighed and began to prod at the fire over the noises of the enthusiastic, very scientific experiment happening off to his right.

Ling held up a fist sized specimen. “So what do ya say, Ed? You dare me?”

“Hell yeah I dare you!” Ed clenched his fists in excitement. “C’mon, let’s see!”

Ling bit into the stone with a satisfying _crunch,_ making a face of exaggerated appraisal, as if he were sampling an exotic dish and not a literal rock he’d picked up off the ground. However, after a moment he started coughing, spraying chunks of gravel as he tried to get the dust out of his lungs.

“Ewwww gross! Watch it!” Ed jumped back to avoid the projectiles. “So how’d it taste,” he pestered.

After a bout of wheezing Ling finally got enough breath back to answer. “Still better than your shoe.”

“Why you-!”

Ling grinned, dodging out of the way of Ed’s vindictive jab. “Want some?” He held out the half-eaten rock in mock sincerity.

“No way, I don’t have immortal teeth like you!” Oh right, the rest of Ling was immortal now too, there’s _gotta_ be some fun things to do with that. “Hey Ling, now that you can’t get hurt is there anything dangerous you want to try,” Ed asked eagerly. “Like ever want to try jumping off the roof when you were a kid?”

Ling tossed the rock over his shoulder. “What do you mean, I do that now. And my life has been pretty dangerous all on its own, what with the assassination attempts before I could walk,” he shrugged.

“Ohoho you’ve been missing out! It’s the _choice_ that makes the danger fun! Like Al and I used to ride wagons down the steepest hill we could find into flocks of sheep! Got going pretty fast too, heh. The best part was watching the sheep run away all panicked. And if you were unlucky the sheep didn’t get out of your way fast enough and you’d flip! Haha oh man, good times,” Ed finished, a bit wistful.

Ling raised an eyebrow. “Did you ever get hurt?”

“Oh yeah, sliced my arm pretty bad on a rock once, left a cool scar too! Too bad you can’t uh, see it now.” Ed waved with his automail.

“I’m not sure I get why you’d _want_ to risk injury like that.”

“Oh you sweet, sheltered prince, allow me to elucidate you. It’s fun as hell.”

Ling’s expression clearly said “doubt.”

“C’mon, you’ve never wanted to tie a cart to a horse and send it careening through town? You’ve never felt like climbing a tire swing up the next tree over and swinging fast enough to skid across the surface of the river?”

“These are all really specific.”

“Hey c’mon man, it’s all about going _fast,_ don’t tell me that doesn’t sound fun! And now you don’t have anything to worry about! Think of the _possibilities!_ ”

“Hmmm…” Ling put a hand on his chin, seeming to think it over. “All right, I admit myself intrigued. What did you have in mind?”

Ed’s diabolical grin would have made Greed proud.

~~~

Darius stood gaping at the giant structure standing by the river. He knew he should do some yelling, tell the kids that what looked like some kind of enormous ramp was _not_ helpful for staying hidden. But at the same time, looking up at the stone monolith created by powers outside of his understanding and topped by two teenagers, one immortal and one with the power of God in his hands, he could look back at Heinkel sitting next to the dying fire, studiously ignoring the happenings by the river, and go “Yeah, that’s fair.”

Ed didn’t even notice the man turn back around and return to camp, focused as he was on double-checking his calculations. “So with an 83 degree slope and a 64 degree launch ramp you _should_ be able to clear that tree no problem,” he half-muttered to himself.

“Whatever you say,” Ling said, fairly calm for someone sitting in a rickety alchemized cart on top of a 40ft ramp.

“All right, you ready?” Ed’s moderately evil grin was back.

Ling nodded vigorously, pulling his legs up to his chest.

“Haaang on!” Ed gave the wagon a hearty shove, sending Ling careening towards glory or death.

Well at least some of his calculations had been right, he thought, as he tracked the two separate post-launch trajectories of the cart and Ling. He jogged after Ling’s echoing scream and distant crash to find the prince extricating himself from some bushes that prooooobably weren’t poison oak. Probably. Whoops.

“See, wasn’t that fun? You didn’t even hit the tree!”

“Ha, no thanks to you. I thought you were supposed to be good at math?”

“Hey!” Ed took a couple swipes at Ling’s smirking face, but the prince, none the worse for his recent trip, easily dodged. “If you want to build the ramp yourself, be my guest!”

“Manual labor? No thanks! I’ll let you do all the-” Ling broke off, wincing.

“What is it? Is it Greed? Tell him to give you more time-“

“It’s fine!” Ling was instantly back to his usual smiling self. “He has Zero objections right now!”

“Huh, ok, that’s good. Didn’t think he’d let you run around for so long, but I’m glad he’s letting you out more if it means I can launch you at trees.”

“I’ll admit, you were right! That was like flying! You sure you don’t want to go next? I’d be happy to push you!”

“Ha as if, I don’t have your healing! You’ll probably push me wrong and I’ll end up losing my other arm!”

“Sounds like you don’t have the _skills_ to land safely, like I do,” Ling taunted with a catty grin.

“Oh I have _plenty_ of skills, skills enough to wipe that smile off your face!” It occurred to Ed that he’d never directly fought Ling before, just his bodyguards. Lan Fan had been tough, but she’d been nothing like Teacher. And weren’t guards supposed to be better than the people they guarded? Although Ling _had_ held his own against Envy, and reportedly Fuhrer Bradley himself. This might be an interesting matchup after all, or at least a nice opportunity to spar, keep his reflexes sharp.

“Hey Ling, I have an idea, let’s fight!”

**“NO!”** The combined shouts of the two chimeras echoed through the trees. How had they even heard him?? Oh right, animal senses.

“IT’S JUST GOING TO BE A SPARRING MATCH, RELAX!” Ed could feel the scorch of long-distance paternal glares through the trees. Whatever, if they tried to stop him, he’d just fight _them_ , not a problem.

“Whaddya say?” He turned back to Ling.

“Oh I don’t know, sparring with _commoners_ is a bit below my station, don’t you think?”

“Hey! Oh what, afraid you’ll lose to a _peasant,_ Idiot Prince?”

“No, I fear it will be too easy, a waste of my _valuable_ time,” Ling mocked.

“ _WHAT_!? Oh no, I saw you get smashed by that Father guy, you won’t stand a chance against my alchemy-“

“NO ALCHEMY” Heinkel’s shout cut him off again.

Oh come on, it’s not like he couldn’t fix whatever damage he did to the forest. Unless he killed a bunch of trees. And they _were_ supposed to be in hiding…

“FINE, NO ALCHEMY. HAPPY?” He was still sure he could take the pampered prince, alchemy or no.

Taking the silence from the direction of the camp site as an affirmative, he turned back to Ling. “All right squinty, how about this: we fight, hand to hand, no weapons, no alchemy, and to make it _worth your time,_ you can have some more food. _If_ you win.”

Ling perked up, clearly tempted. “Hmmm, and what about if you win?”

Ed put a hand on his chest in a show of mock humility. “The only prize I’ll need is the knowledge I bested the _great_ Xingese Prince Ling Yao.”  

Ling grinned. “My, the tales of the Fullmetal Alchemist’s humble graciousness are true! I suppose I cannot refuse such a polite invitation. You’re on,” he moved into a fighting stance, opening his eyes in sly challenge, “Pipsqueak.”

“BASTARD, I’LL SHOW YOU WHO’S A PIPSQUEAK!” Ed lunged forward, and the fight was on.

~~~

Ed sat grumbling, herb poultice over half his face. “That was still cheating!”

Ling lounged, enjoying his hard-won post-dinner meal. “Hey, just using all the tools at my disposal! Not my fault you didn’t see it coming.”

“You _knew_ your coat had poison oak on it! It was a dirty trick!”

“See I thought you’d be able to dodge, since your Amestrian training is _so_ superior to my own. I apologize for overestimating you.”

“Oh, shaddup you squinty bastard.”

“It’s a good thing you knew which herbs will keep the swelling down, Elric. Face rashes can be nasty things.” Heinkel gave Ed a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get you next time, you cheat!”

Ling gave a cheeky grin in response. Between the insect welts and the poison oak rash, Ed’s face wasn’t having the best day, but Ling sure was. Mostly. He suppressed another wince, taking a bite of rabbit to mask his discomfort.

There had been little change to the homunculus languishing in the back of his mind, and he was all too glad to be able to enjoy the freedom to move his own limbs. The annoying part was receiving the occasional flash of what the sin was feeling, which was very much not great. If the guy was going to mope he should at least have the decency to leave Ling out of it.

It had been several hours with no sign of Greed making his way out of the guilt-laden funk he’d fallen into, which got Ling thinking. If the sin was trapped in some kind of feedback loop, he might not be able to get out of it, leaving Ling in charge indefinitely. Which meant, for the first time since he’d gotten a philosopher’s stone, he was free to do as he willed.

Lan Fan and Fu had likely returned to Xing for her recovery, and even if they hadn’t, the Yao clan had enough friends at the border that Ling could easily make his way back home. With his proven immortality, he would undoubtedly be able to secure the throne, ensuring his clan the highest position and averting a civil war.

Of course, Ed would certainly object. It was true, there were certainly very large problems with this country, but it sounded like they were a ways off yet, plenty of time for Ed to figure out how to deal with them.

There was, however, the matter of the occasional flashes of deep, despairing guilt from the stone’s occupant. Ling was confident he could handle it, he’d manage to find a way to cope, he was sure. It was just like… Depression. He basically had depression now. Great.

No matter, that was still better than being possessed. Even if the waves of foreign anguish _did_ seem to be getting more frequent- No, he could handle it, he had to think of his clan.

The rest of the short evening passed in cheerful banter, Ling’s smile as much a mask as Lan Fan or Fu’s. Ed did seem confused as to why there had been no sign of Greed as the evening came to a close, but must have been content not to press the issue.

Ed and the chimeras prepared their sleeping arrangements, with Darius taking the first watch. Perfect. Of the two, his night vision was going to be much easier to circumvent. Feeling the package of rabbit he’d secreted under his cloak, he began walking into the trees at a leisurely pace.

“Hey Ling, where are you going? Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Ling turned back, smile carefully in place. “It’s almost Greed’s turn again, and he wants to watch the stars.”

Ed deflated at the reminder that Ling wasn’t always himself anymore. “Oh. Right. See you later?”

“Good night, Ed.”

...Why did lying weigh more on his conscious than usual? He gave his friend a wave, before turning to the trees, making a show of heading towards Greed’s usual spot.

Once he judged himself to be out of sight, hearing, and scent of the chimera guard, he adjusted his path, heading almost due east. “Sorry, Ed…” The faint whisper was lost in the night breeze.

~~~

Ling dug his fingers into a tree trunk, teeth clenched. At last, the surge of overwhelming remorse faded, leaving him gasping for breath. That had lasted far too long. He’d been walking for maybe an hour, tops, but the intermittent intrusions of Greed’s sordid emotions were quickly becoming more than he could handle.

Bastard didn’t even have the decency to melt down in peace and just _had_ to drag Ling down with him. Ling sank against the base of the tree; he had to admit to himself that he wasn’t going to get very far at all at this rate. He slammed a fist into the ground. First bit of hope he’d had in a while, and all for nothing.

He brought his hand up to his face, watching as he slowly clenched and unclenched his fist before letting his hand fall against the ground with a sigh. He took a long breath, savoring the firsthand sensations, before turning inwards to the mass of souls behind his eyes, searching for the forlorn disembodied face he knew he’d find. Time to get the idiot out of his own head.

Navigating through one wailing mess, Ling soon found the one currently causing his problems. He grit his teeth as he waded through the morass of guilt; yeah, this needed to end. He got right up to the fanged face mumbling to itself and took the mindspace equivalent of a deep breath.

_Well, well, just when I thought you couldn’t sink any lower! Get a hold of yourself, I’ve been running around in my body all afternoon, and you’ve been down here stewing!_

Greed barely reacted to Ling’s words. **_My… fault…_ **

Ling nearly rolled his eyes. _Yes we’ve gone over this, you made some poor decisions, but if you don’t stop destroying yourself over them I’m going to start trying to do it myself for some peace and quiet._

**_I destroyed him, I killed him, my fault…_ **

Ling winced as another wave of guilt washed against him. This guy was really losing it.

_All right ENOUGH!_

Finally got Greed’s attention, good. Facing down the homunculus’s shocked silence, Ling dug in.

_Listen here, dumbass. Yeah, you killed your friend, but you’re going to stop dragging us both down into your little pity party and here’s why: it was Not your fault._

More shocked silence, excellent.

_Here’s the thing, Greed. I’ve killed people. To survive, yeah, but some of those people I considered my friends, and maybe under different circumstances they could’ve been. But us, we were both dealt shitty hands as far as life situations goes, and that’s the thing, Greed, it wasn’t me, wasn’t my own prerogative to wake up and go “you know what, I feel like killing this person today.”_

He was hitting his stride now, pouring out the years of his own repressed anger against a world he knew had wronged him and so many others.

_It was because I was stuck in a system, a centuries-old system that deals in backstabbing and murder to get ahead, hell it even Encourages fratricide. And there is no opt out, no way to pretend the system doesn’t exist, because you do that, and you and everyone you care about, even a little, gets caught in a merciless meatgrinder._

_So I’ve lived with it. And what I tell myself, what I have to tell myself, is it’s not Me, it’s this fucking system that lets children kill each other for the barest hint of the imagined favor of a sadistic and uncaring father. I imagine that feels familiar, hmm?_

_So here’s my two cenz, my advice, my valuable words of wisdom: it’s not_ **_You_ ** _._

The homunculus shrank back from his jabbing finger.

_You _ _didn’t consciously decide to betray your friend. You didn’t remember he Was your friend, but whose fault was that? The guy who dunked you in lava, the guy who tried to “cleanse” your soul of everything that had been yours, the guy who tried so, so very hard to make you into a tool and not a person, that guy. Not._ **_You_ ** _._

_And me, I’m planning on winning. I’m planning on doing right by my clan, doing right by what’s mine, getting to the very top. And maybe once I’m there I’ll be able to change things, who knows, but for now all I can do is keep sight of what’s at fault for the terrible, awful things I’ve had to experience, the things I’ve done. And it’s_ **_not me._ **

_So, what are you going to do? Sit in here blaming yourself forever? Or are you going to accept that maybe, you're not the one to blame here? Will you let your shitty bastard father beat you, again, or will. You. Win?_

At his final words Ling got right in Greed’s stunned face. Let’s see the homunculus try to ignore him _now._

The silence dragged on, but Ling refused to break eye contact. The benefits of not needing to blink in here, he supposed. And then, the homunculus began laughing. Ling raised an eyebrow; that sort of thing was _also_ generally a poor coping mechanism-

**_Is this my life now, being lectured by a child?_** Greed chuckled as Ling began bristling. His  laughter continued, but Ling could at last feel the aura of regret fading.

**_I knew there was a reason I kept you around, kid._ **

Ling sighed as he felt the painful emotions subside. Finally. That had been simpler than he feared. However, his relief was short lived as Greed casually shoved him to the side to take back control of his body.

_Hey!_ Ling briefly pounded against the sin’s hold, before resigning himself to sitting back in his usual, back seat position. Looked like that was that, then. At least he’d gotten one fun day, he thought ruefully. And the absence of someone else’s crippling guilt was also nice.

_Ready to join the world of functional people again?_

**_Ha ha._ ** The homunculus stood up and surveyed his surroundings, looking around at the trees in the dim moonlight. And looked again. And again. Ling could practically hear the “Where the #&$% am I.”

_I went for a walk._

**_Huh, that explains it._ **

_Camp is that way._

**_Right._ **

_It was a long walk._

**_If you say so._ **

Greed set off through the trees in the correct direction. Ling sighed to himself. He’d been so close, yet so far. Maybe next time.

~~~

 

**Omake: New Heights**

Darius returned to camp, another rabbit in hand. Seeing Heinkel dissociate into the fire, but neither of the other two (three?) members of their little group, he felt some manner of concern. “Hey, uh, where’d the kids go?”

Heinkel just shook his head, gesturing behind him. Darius looked towards the trees, and in the evening light could make out Elric standing by himself. He approached, noticing that the kid, apart from being alone, seemed to be squinting upwards.

“Hey, where’s the other one?”

Elric held up a hand as if to say “hold on,” and as he got close Darius could hear him counting under his breath. “Hey kid what are you…” Darius stopped, hearing something, something that sounded like a distant scream…

“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA **A** **AAAAAAAAAAAA** -“ **_THUD_ **

Darius sprung backwards as something large and black hurtled out of the sky and crashed into the ground. “WHAT THE-“

The shape was moving, red crackles running up and down its length, but it wasn’t until it lifted its head that Darius realized the shape was the kid also possessed by their “boss.” The kid lurched to his feet, slurring something excitedly to Elric.

“Seventeen seconds, a new record,” Elric cheered.

“Hell yeah!”

The two high fived, the other kid seeming to have recovered from his recent high velocity impact. “Let’s go again!”

Darius watched, unable to formulate a single coherent thought, as the alchemist clapped his hands and slammed them against the ground, instantly creating a large spur of rock underneath his friend and launching him skyward faster than Darius’s eyes could follow.

Figuring that was enough for him, the chimera returned to his partner, joining him in staring blankly into the fire. This was fine.


End file.
